If they were outright illegal to own, they would not be for sale. On-line sellers would not be allowed to ship them into the state and thier web sites would have a disclaimer.

There may be some laws with regards to age and where/when you can carry them. If your just out cutting in the backyard you probably won't get in trouble. If your carrying one around the streets you may get stopped.

There are a number of good training oppurtunities in Mass, in particular in the Boston area. That alone proves that ownership is not illegal. If you're really curious about the laws in your local area, I would suggest contacting one of these places. Those folks are going to know the local laws the best. While you're talking to them, why not sign up for genuine training? Your father might be more willing to support you if he knew you had access to good instruction to help keep your fingers attached to your hands.

As was previously mentioned, while it is legal to own them, if you take them out in public and start swinging them around, you put yourself at risk for running afoul of any number of laws including reckless endangerment and disturbing the peace.

Those folks who genuinely train with their weapons put them in a bag for transport, and store them in the trunk of their car. That way if they get pulled over by the cops it's easy to show that the weapon is not meant to be readily available. The same folks also generally only transport them between their home and their training location.

Swords aren't toys and shouldn't be treated as such. They are more like guns with a hair trigger, no safety and which can't be unloaded. The cops are going to treat them that way.

_________________________
Iaido -
Breaking down bad habits,
and building new ones.

Thankx I will look into it. I'm trying to start training soon because I have always loved the martial arts and would like to begin training ASAP. I enjoy weapon based martial arts and Regular Martial arts. I preffer advanced martial arts that require lots of training and that is not seen often

I am looking for a place that teaches Miyamoto Musashi's Dual Wield Sword Style, or something similar to it. I plan on buying a katana and wakazashi. I know how to handle them well because my friend took kenjutsu and taught me a little. I only feel comfortable with swords when they are not sharp.

I'm also all for hand to hand combat training as well. Thank you all for the suggesting I will check them out.